detroit's seduce show you how even after 20 years an old dog will always come back to bite you in your ass!!!

Sunday, June 11, 2006

the decline of western civilization was a lie and a farce! the metal years as i remember them were very different then this movie made it seem... as i was the bass player in an underground death metal band called corrupt... you may have seen us play parties @ racine, dresden, greystone etc. we were called 'knightmare' until we found out a westside band had the same name, so corrupt was born. we were and still are in my opinion one of the cities hardest, fastest and most brutal bands. in my off time i'd shoot concerts as a music journalist, photographer... my best was featured in 'guitar for the practicing musician' (cherry lane music) where i was the first person to interview ace frehley of kiss in his first interview after leaving the band. all who know me know i always shot kiss and cobo hall was my home away from home. "the kiss museum news" was my official kiss fanzine from back in the day. i knew people too, members of the romantics, amboy dukes, the rockets, strut, halloween and the band who likes to brag about themselves being the best, seduce. i ran into seduce (mark andrews) at a kiss concert, it was 'creatures of the night' tour 1982 and wendy 'o williams and the plasmatics were the opener. mr. andrews introduced himself. we talked about our love of kiss etc, the evenings event the main topic. i was shooting the show. mark and his group of people were right up close to the photo pit. and he told me he had a local band, i asked him the deal and he said they were called, seduce. he asked if i would shoot some photos for them and if i charged a ton of money. i told him i'll contact you after the tour. i was shooting (kiss' 10th anniversary tour) stuff for the band. actually gene simmons and his kiss organization. so i go check out the seduce band. i have to admit i was impressed. i thought these guys are really good, hungry and they have a very cool "agressive attack" with the bottom end heaviness i like. i agreed to shoot some stuff for them. my partner at the time ross marino was on the road and who would eventually became harpos house photographer. he told me "go for it". he was used to shooting big time rock stars like ted nugent and pink floyd so he said start at the begining with this band and you'll end up being the main man in the photography department with them if they start to become successful. so i took his advice. i shot these guys at all the local places from traxx to harpos to isis... seen them open for everybody from saxon to girlschool to accept to dokken... mark told me they had a new drummer. i could not tell i told him, "he's perfect". never saw them play with mickey sinclair. anyway i shot lot's of venues and eventually i was just going to see them play where ever they were. i remember the dearborn house as my first climpse of them at home. i was sure that if they kept going something was gonna break for them. later, mark andrews was showing me some bass lick's at dave's dad's house. i was thinking i was in with the 'click' and was going to be the 'official' photographer for these guys. mark mentioned the band needed lots of killer live photos and that they were getting ready to record their debut record. i mentioned i draw too. and mark asked about the current "perfume bottle" logo as i called it. i said it's cool but i could design something much better and more modern & in tune with the style of the 'heavy metal' bands of the day. i have a ton of great live photos and a logo sketch... i go over to dave's house (brightmoore) and show them the art and images. mark held the artwork and pictures as i trusted him, he seemed nice enough and at that time i had no idea i was making a big mistake. when i went out to my car to get more photos that i had left inside the vehicle, i was stopped at the front porch by kenny cissne and todd mcevoy where they proceeded to step in my way and refused to let me re-enter the house. mr. miller shut the door and stood there gaurd. i was surprised and thought what the hell is wrong with these fools? i told them i'll leave, but let me get my artwork and the photos i left in the house. they refused. i sat in my car waiting for mark to come outside. finally, a police car pulls up. the officers tell me i have to leave...? i'm like what? someone in the house called the cops and said i refused to leave the property. so the officers said you need to leave, i asked them let me go inside and get my stuff, they said "no you need to leave", so i did. i told kenny "this is not over". while speaking to the police trying to find out what i did wrong, (nothing) i filed a report myself. the police would not tell me what i did wrong. they said someone inside the house did not want me tresspassing on the property. so that is the story of how the seduce artwork for the guitars and logo on the debut album artwork ended up in the bands hands. my copyrights on the artwork are registered at the library of congress washington dc. december 1983/january 1984. the band releases the debut record. i see it in aardshock and other metal magazines and every time i see it, i see red. i let it go as a lesson learned. 2002 comes along and i see the debut album being re-issued by mingya records... i get a copy. no correction of the credits. my name nowhere in sight. same as the album. then a live re-union dvd and t-shirts aplenty on ebay. ok, now i'm mad. i speak to my mother about this as she has the copyright papers at her home holding them for me. she was living in brightmoore in the early 70's to the mid 80's when she moved to florida. anyway 3 months ago she passed away and my copyright papers were given to my grandmother who lives in maple grove, minnesota. she ships them to me and now for the past 3 months i've been speaking with david black and mark andrews about correcting and restoring my copyrights. david black just plain does not care to admit to anything and refuses to admit the generic designs of the matching flying v's are mine. he claims he designed them, on the cd it says pellerito designed them and mark andrews claims he designed them. i've also been speaking with doug espositos at my home in los feliz california and mark about these issues via the phone in the last several years. chuck has only sent me "vailed threats" through the owner of rock of ages record store in garden city... something about 'exposing my past'. the facts are i designed the guitars. david made certain modifications but he nor mark andrews nor tom pellerito designed them, i did. pellerito built them to my specs from an early 70's gibson flying 'v' i still have. the balance and weight as well as the shorter scale used for the bass. david picked out gold hardware and the inlays, binding etc. and he wanted a floyd rose. i'm not sure what pick-ups were put into these but from my recollection they were emg's. the logo on the cover of the album and even the idea of the photo shoot on the cover was mine. and i'm here to put out the info to the world who, where, when and what. anyone who would like to tell me this information is not true will need to say it to my face. and, say it with an attorney in tow. to anyone associated or mentioned here you can "sue" me if you have proof to pre-date my copyrights. not going to happen. and i am not worried about being sued or attacked by anyone in the seduce camp from michael miller who works for disney or ken cissne who works running lights on the touring road with bands like biohazard and limp bizkit... or chuck burns, mark andrews and david black or mingya records. 'tony maisano' spent several days trying to play e-mail games and finally decided to "lawyer up" when it came time to show his copyright proof. as far back as this week... he has no proof. he has no lawyer. not sure if "tony maisano" is even a real person... the address for mingya records is actually a hair salon... no mingya records in sight. mr. maisano's 2 die 4 hair salon??? whatever. has released and un-authorized bootleg of this recording without printing the proper copyright information. in short they are a group of 'trash' (you hear that mark, david of crud and chuck from speedball, skeemin no goods?) who never made it out of detroit for a reason. so this is public notice to seduce, tom pellerito and joe demitchell you are not the artist responsible for the logo or guitar designs, i am and if you don't like the truth i'm posting here you need to contact me and show me your copyrights from the library of congress pre-dating mine. 83/84. feel free to file your lawsuit regarding this situation. i'm looking forward to seeing you walk into court with documents you do not and will never have because i hold those copyrights. end of story. please come and sue me, put your money where your copyright is allegedly supposed to be. bring it. this blog will contain all communications from all parties. stay tuned. any threats, intimidation etc. will be delt with by the police department. so anyone wanting to attack me in any public way will be delt with by law enforcement. try me and find out the hard way. i'm taking back my rights. end of this story for now. michael and kenny the jails have plenty of cells open and waiting... bring it.